In this image released by Universal Pictures, John Krasinski, left, and Drew Barrymore are shown in a scene from "Big Miracle," a film about the rescue of a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle. The film opens Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Darren Michaels)

Photo: Darren Michaels, Associated Press

In this image released by Universal Pictures, John Krasinski, left,...

Animal-loving volunteer Rachel Kramer (DREW BARRYMORE) offers comfort to one of the trapped whales while state wildlife official Pat Lafayette (TIM BLAKE NELSON) looks on in the rescue adventure "Big Miracle", inspired by the incredible true story that touched the world.

Big Miracle

There are stories that by their very nature force you to confront the possibility that people aren't entirely horrible. Case in point: In 1988, three whales got themselves trapped in Alaska. They were 5 miles away from the ocean, breathing through a small opening in the ice, but within days, everyone knew, that opening would freeze over and the whales would drown ... unless a lot of people got together and did something about it - immediately.

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The story of that incident is recounted in "Big Miracle," a title that doesn't exactly leave much room for suspense. It is the real-life (though Hollywoodized) account of how environmentalists, politicians, soldiers, foreign governments, Alaskan tribesmen and the news media teamed up to save the whales, but that's not the part that speaks well of humanity. The encouraging - and curious - part of the story is that people were genuinely interested, all over the world. It's a nice thought that when given the facts and no personal interest in thinking otherwise, people will instinctively take the side of life over death.

"Big Miracle" is about how the rescue attempt was brought about by a confluence of various interests. John Krasinski plays a TV reporter, mired in the frozen backwater of Alaska, who sees the story as his ticket to the lower 48. Ted Danson is a drill-happy oilman who recognizes the publicity advantage of getting out in front of the rescue effort. Various elements in the Reagan administration see this as an opportunity to bolster a fairly weak environmental record, and the local Eskimos figure out that if they choose to eat the whales, rather than help them, they will be perceived as bloody savages.

Only Drew Barrymore, as a Greenpeace honcho, is in it entirely for the whales, but then that's good that there's only one selfless person around. Instead of this being a story of a bunch of lovely people doing a lovely thing, it's rather the story of average people who become much better people as a result of doing a lovely thing, even though some start out doing it for less than noble reasons.

Watching the film, I had no recollection of the 1988 news story, though I had a pretty good idea how things would turn out, mainly because they didn't call the movie "Three Dead Whales," despite that title's obvious box office appeal. In the absence of suspense, the filmmakers' challenge was holding the audience, despite the atmosphere of inevitability. They set out to do this in two ways - first by following the various and fascinating trails of self-interest, as they miraculously converge. (If anything, that was the true big miracle, that everyone knew they'd benefit.) And second, by sticking to the story itself, which was full of crises and turning points.

The strong emotions at play are good, but the movie veers, at times, into schmaltz, and some comedy shorthand feels lazy and dumb - as when two brothers from Minnesota, who invented an ice melting machine, are treated like a pair of comic bumpkins out of "Fargo." Director Ken Kwapis skates too much on the surface, making obvious choices, but he is rescued in this tendency by Barrymore, Dermot Mulroney (as a National Guard colonel), Tim Blake Nelson (as a wild life expert) and even Krasinski, all of whom have a real instinct for the truth.

"Big Miracle" is not the most sophisticated adventure film, but compared with most family movies, it's practically something out of Noel Coward.